They create a problem by not explaining why. It just makes people guess and spread rumors.

Something obviously has gone down. big time.

agree with above anon, but what are you meant to say if it is something inappropriate?

And what if it's not? So quick to judge. Don't know any details but I know a man who is passionate about basketball.

Could easily be something as simple as a player revolt.

Player revolt is what I am hearing.

Ditto

Not surprising really, coaching behavior has been a concern for a while now.

Revolt primarily lead by one player apparently.

how about a name then if it is only 1 player. If people weren't happy with Basketball Geelong's statement yesterday because it left questions, this just puts a question mark against the name of 12 players by speculating it was just 1 who lead the revolt.

Or, everyone can just move on!

Captain Courtney Williamson as a result of her minutes being lowered due to average performances.
Poorly managed by the club, coach unsupported and players now in charge it would appear.

A proved, winning, successful coach fired because the club can't get the players in line and replaced by a coach who has no history of developing any player outside of aussie hoops, no proven success at junior or senior level and no credentials to support the appointment. It is observed. What is this club thinking?

Heard Courtney was reluctant to remain with the club and had been approached by rival clubs in the off season as she was fed up with the coach.

The replacement is only interim for the remainder of the year.

More to coaching then X's & O's, this is a good move by the club as the writing had been on the wall for quite a while.

great point happy days

This has been handled terribly by the Geelong club. If things were that unhealthy for so long, it should have been managed before the season started. Instead of airing their dirty laundry 3 games into the season.

Now what's happened is a coach's reputation was no doubt questioned in the worst possible way. A player who shares the floor with other players has created a rebellion, against their coach. Not acceptable form!

The CEO has no idea 1st year in and it shows

The new CEO is maybe trying to clean up a few things down at Geelong.

O'Brien had a few in his pocket in major decision making roles at the club which obviously don't have as much say anymore in order to get the job in the first place.

Beth,

Your obvious emotional connection the supercats clearly clouds your judgement on all things Geelong. This has clearly been handled horribly by the CEO & the club and a coaches reputation shattered as a direct result of poor management.
The player at the centre of all this has a history of dividing teams and putting herself above the clubs she has played for.

If you are referring to Courtney's history let me just say, she is a quality young individual.

The coach on the other hand, well lets just say his history has had some issues in terms of dividing teams....

This is not the forum to questions people character. Neither individual.

Im sure all individuals knowing what they both know now, may go about this situation very differently.

To say the CEO has done the right thing here though is laughable and Beth you are close to the inner sanctum but to believe that this decision was the right one to make without any sort of mediation is crazy. Peoples reputations and well being at stake and not taken into consideration.

The way I read it the sacked coach has conducted himself with class! stated it came as a surprise and he had always his players welfare at mind!

^anon you need to read what has been written more carefully. You are contradicting yourself.

It wasn't his program, maybe that is the point?

If you honestly think one player has that organization by the basketballs your clearly misguided. No coach can be terminated without due cause or at least a majority opinion especially with two years left on a contract. it would have been nothing to promise that player that changes will be made next season..if that was the issue. I have no clue what player people are referring too but if her dad doesn't own the team what leverage does she have to get a coach fired?

I get the feeling Williamson simply provided the catalyst for the board to enact out an already pre determined course of action...

I was there Saturday too, and while I agree it would probably not have been a cheap makeover, it certainly was a good one. Best game presentation in the league by a wide margin in my opinion.

Williamson being made a scapegoat for being the captain and taking the entire playing groups concerns to the board.

^Jealousy, someone can't handle the fact that another association is having a go at improving things?

WOW Jealousy #466247

That is a new spin of the subject matter. Little bit of reaching I would say

Reference to the stadium comment, anon is jealous of what they saw at Geelong.

'Possibly cant afford to pay a coach after decking out their whole stadium.'

This comment smacks of jealousy, envy if you like. The coach's contract will have to be paid out regardless.

It's womens basketball who gives a crap.

#466280

There goes more junior money

#466582

Your wrong. The women's program does not draw money from the junior program at Geelong.
Sounds like it does at your club?

We all know the supercats merged for money only

#466559

Your wrong. The club merged after a BA directive to SEABL clubs to be association based.

So many bitter people with so little knowledge of the topics they comment on. SMH

Why would SEABL clubs have to follow a BA directive? They are a seperate league from BA aren't they?

SEABL have not voted on joining any organistaion yet.

This directive wasn't made this year. Supercats and Basketball Geelong began joining in 2011. BA had decided that SEABL would be the underpinning league to NBL and required all teams to be or become association based. This has since change, however the two groups were joined by this time.

Well said Mycroft. Let keep an eye out and see how many players move on next year, even though they have pushed out a well rounded performer within the club.

The ripple effect on this will be seen down the junior female lines in the club.
In an era that takes high resource and dedication to just keep girls playing basketball let alone introducing them to the game it will be well known to the junior players and parents what actually occurred and how it was poorly managed.

The club has avoided announcing the real reasons to the knee jerk decision but make to mistake, it will show effects down the line to junior girls.

Junior players/parents/teams/parent groups will challenge coaches training requirements and why shouldn't they... the lady supercats did it and got the club to fire a productive, successful coach.

Disappointing.

Supercats or Superbrats?

I am a fan of the Supercats and to be honest, I would have been more surprised to see Paul still coaching next year or even to have seen out this season then I am with the timing of this news.
Highly doubtful this is a knee jerk reaction by the club, it is a big decision and something they would have taken careful consideration of - timing may not seem great being only 2 weeks into the season, but it could very well mean seeing a team in a better place take to the floor this week, and have them in a better place for the rest of the season.

Good luck to them for the rest of the year

article on the new coach:
INTERIM McDonald's Geelong Lady Supercats coach Bruce Hultgren believes his roster can overcome the departure of Paul O’Brien and contend for the 2014 SEABL title.

O’Brien had his contract with the club terminated on Sunday, less than 24 hours after an impressive seven-point win over Dandenong which has Geelong sitting 2-1 after the opening fortnight.

Hultgren was swiftly installed as caretaker and took training for the first time on Monday.

He has told Supercats.com.au it was straight back to business for the playing group.

"To their credit, on Sunday night when the news was broken, they took it upon themselves to openly say “we need to band together",” Hultgren said.

“They went and immediately had a team meeting, and then the atmosphere Monday night training was “let’s get to work, we’re good enough, let’s do it”.”

Hultgren, who played 205 NBL games with Geelong and North Melbourne, has had another former Supercat in Glenn Sharp join the coaching staff, with both current assistants Tim Sanderson and Col Darrington retained.

Sharp will play an important role during the middle of the season, assuming the number one position while Hultgren is on duty with the Vic Country under 16 men’s team in the lead-up to the National Championships, which will be will be held in Geelong in July.

“We’re preparing the girls already that his is going to be happening and Glenn was at the first session on Monday as well,” Hultgren said.

“So there won’t be any confusion on the message, and the good thing about these girls is they’re intelligent women.

“The rules don’t change. If you’re smarter than the other team, and you work harder, you win.”

Only minor tweaks have been made to the Lady Supercats game plan, with Hultgren reticent to make drastic changes.

“Offensively, we’re not making too many tweaks. We’ll just have a few more look.” Hultgren said.

“(But) there’s been a couple of defensive things we’ve already thrown in differently, and the girls have responded to that.

Hultgren is well aware of the expectations placed on the roster, which has added former WNBL Rookie of the Year Tayla Roberts from Hobart and ex-Ballarat star Kate Willey, and had Anna Teague return.

He believes the work ethic of the group will ensure the Lady Supercats have a big say in the post-season.

“I know it’s the old cliché, but if we do what I know we’re supposed to do, everything else will take care of itself.” Hultgren said.

In regards to Saturday night, Williamson was actually subbed out in the first quarter after picking up her 2nd foul; you don't often leave players on the court early in the match with 2 fouls and allow them to pick up a 3rd before quarter time. She then returned with a couple of minutes to go in the first quarter and played out the quarter. By the end of the game Williamson had actually played more minutes than she did in either game in Canberra the previous weekend.

As for the rest of the league knowing why O'Brien was let go - that is probably true, and no doubt that the information they know is a lot more accurate than some of the stuff being implied on here.

Good luck Paul and good luck to the Supercats.

"If you're smarter than the other team and work harder you win"!!! Mmmmm

Wasn't one of the groups main gripes having to work so hard at training????

Wasn't one of the groups main gripes having to work so hard at training????
-----
Not according to the article from Paul: *The baffled coach was told he was too negative and his training sessions went for too long, among other concerns.*

Nothing about having to work hard at training - at least not according to what was said by Paul, because the club kept quiet on the specifics on the issues. Maybe the issue with training going for too long is that training sessions made insufficient use of time, rather than a shorter training sessions that were actually beneficial.

Sounds like a pampered group of players to me. Should have kept the coach and cut the problem players.

^You obviously have not been around many FEMALE basketball teams.... the language is arguably worse than mens teams.

Either way, the gender is irrelevant when it comes down to behaviour and how to speak to people.

By the sounds of it these so called 'professional and elite athletes' need to suck it up or play at a lower level. A big loss for Geelong, good luck to Paul! A great coach who got the best out of what he had.

Who said these were professional and elite athletes? The players on the team are students, and/or have full time jobs; SEABL is far from a professional league, and considering that those on the mens team other than the imports all have to work to make a living, I would very much doubt it is any different with the women,

SEABL is Australia's premier league in the winter and renowned as the second highest division in the country. You will also find that it is not only the imports that get paid to play, yes it is not enough to make a living for most but this is also the case in the WNBL (which i hope you agree that these are professional/elite athletes as well).

^"SEABL is Australia's premier league in the winter"

Only because the SEABL internally promote this slogan. Wake up - it's not.
Granted it used to be in the 90's and early 2000's, it has not been close for many many many years now.
Get out of your Victorian bubble and look at the SBL, Warratah & QBL.

The consensus on this thread is clear; The CEO & Supercats handled the firing of the coach poorly & the players behaviour was deplorable.

End thread.

I would call professional athletes those that are able to make a living out of their chosen sporting field without the need to work (especially full-time work) when away from their sporting commitments.
I would call leagues such as SEABL and the WNBL semi-professional because you do have athletes who are able to make a living from it and have that as their job, but for the majority they aren't in that position.
If you want these players to train like professional athletes and have basketball as their number 1 commitment in their lives, then pay them as such; but until that happens realise that these players are making sacrifices to attend trainings, to play (especially away games on a Friday night, particular interstate games), so maybe they deserve some respect.

Would you call the Canberra Capitals Academy team a professional team in this league when they have no budget to pay their players, and this includes Nat Hurst who has signed to play for them this season, for nothing if she is in the position to suit up during the year.

Has anyone here actually spoken to the players to get their side of the story and an understanding of the actually issues they had with the coach (other than his paraphrasing in the article on Tuesday?), how long these issues have been a factor for, whether or not something had been tried to resolve the problems and just how many of the players (new, old & even look at those who walked away from the club at the end of last season) have actually put their hand up to say they were unhappy with the situation?

If the are professional players then shouldn't they act professionally?

And what evidence is there to say that the players have acted in anything other than a professional manner?

Do people really believe that 1 individual player would be able to get the coach sacked? Especially after 1 round?

What happened, the team returned from Canberra and the captain went to the board to say she was unhappy about minutes being shared around over the first weekend double header and she wants the coach sacked?

The fact that a meeting was held straight after the first round of the season suggests that the issues behind Paul's termination run deeper than just 1 or 2 players and have been around longer than just 1 round but that something has possible happened either just prior to the trip or during the trip which was the tipping point, and that Monday's meeting was due to a culmination of issues and that the board felt they had no option but to act.

There is no doubt that Paul has done some great things with the club, taking them through to the conference final in the 2nd season was great. But maybe he had taken the team as far as he could and a change was needed for the team to continue moving forward and continue to grow stronger.

Last year when Ballarat had a coaching restructure just 1 week into the SEABL season and changed the head coach of the womens team, was there this level of criticism of them for acting during the season and not before or after the season? Considering that Ballarat went on to face Knox in the conference final and was actually leading the match in the last, I would say that the coaching change didn't hurt them too much.

Maybe Geelong will respond in the same way and this change will unite the team.

The Geelong women are a fair weather group and its not surprising given the selfishness & cloak/dagger move displayed by the captain. The players will already be questioning what she has done here and they will be discussing it with each other offline. There will be a noisy few dominating the majority on this.

Michael - time to cut the cord maybe. Your obviously a parent of one of the women, its not juniors pal.

What if the majority wanted this change?

Look at how this transpired:
1. Captain getting minutes cut in games
2. Captain keeps going out of plays to improve her situation
3. Captain is tired of being highlighted at games for her lack of performance
4. Captain does not want to train longer to fix her situation
5. Captain does not have the skills or ability to remedy her situation
6. Captain rallies players
7. Captain uses her popularity to go to the board as a pseudo united group
8. CEO response by sacking coach
9. CEO execute sacking it in a manner that questions the coach in the worst possible way
10. Club feels backlash
11. Club tries to deflect and touch up the process in their favour
12. NO ONE ACCEPTS THAT

Outcome:
• Club loses a lot of respect
• Captain looks hopelessly out on her own
• Basketball may lose another coach if he has had enough of this treatment

^^^ total load of crap

The issues have been simmering for a lot longer than just 1 round into the season and involves a lot more players than just the captain or some false belief from a couple of here the captain has somehow conned her teammates into supporting her side of things.

Maybe people should be paying more attention to Beth's comments from earlier in the week - the club has handled what is an extremely difficult situation with discretion and respect for all parties; the negativity, speculation and innuendo has come from posters on this forum & from what the coach said in a departing interview.

In past years the club hasn't been scared to make difficult decisions in season (and early in the season) to release players from their contracts if they felt that the player wasn't the right fit for the club. If the only issue here was one players ego and that they aren't buying into the team ideals then the club would have cut that player and not the coach.

A difficult decision had to be made, but the decision made is for the good of the team and the club and will allow them to move forward. If no decision was made at this stage, then people would be questioning why didn't the board & CEO act sooner and how could they allow the situation get to that stage it did.

As we saw last year when Ballarat made the decision after the 1st round to change senior coaches and they made it all the way through to the conference final; early season changes don't have to be a bad thing.

#467503

How do you know all of this? Who is your source?

Because we are getting very conflicting reports in regards to many of your claims.

@#467530

What a lot of twisted ramble, stay with the facts and not the spin. Geelong have handled this poorly, due to a CEO who is new to the position. Should have been better in all areas.

of what @#467530 said, which is not fact?

- the issue has been around longer than 1 round of SEABL and the issue involves more than just the captain of the team: FACT

- the club has been discreet and respect to all parties involved in what is a difficult situation: FACT

- Speculation and innuendo has come from certain posters on this board and from the coaches departing interview: FACT

- The club has made difficult decisions early in previous seasons to release players who weren't working out and it was best for the team to allow all parties move forward: FACT. Jason Reardon in 2010, Yusuf Qaafow 2 games into the 2012 season. If the issue was limited to 1 player why would they not take the same action again?

- If no decision was made at this stage, if things were allowed to simmer until the middle of the season with things getting worse then people would have questioned how the administration allowed it to get to that stage without acting. FACT

- Ballarat changed coaches 1 game into the 2013 SEABL season, made the conference grand final & actually led the game with 3 minutes to go; coaching change early in season didn't have a negative impact for them: FACT


total agree with @466243; people on here are making Williamson a scapegoat for taking the concerns of the whole playing group to the board.

No one is questioning Paul's coaching ability or what he has achieved in his time at Geelong, but what has been acknowledged is that he was no longer the right coach for the team moving forward and a change was required.

It was the best decision for all parties - the club & the team has had a week to move on, maybe time this board did the same.

@ #467652

You keep saying that the sacking was respectful, it was not for Paul! Are you delusional?

The CEO should have said there were irreconcilable differences between the club, coach and players.
That would be respectful to all parties.

Please stop bringing Ballarat into this you are being disrespectful.

PS The more you type does not mean you are more right...FACT

I see Geelong SEABL women had a very good, high scoring, and entertaining win over a very good Knox unit. 11 geelong girls played minutes and Williamson was very effective in her minutes.

It appears those with no idea of what goes on in the inner sanctum of ANY club have big mouths and most likely fat fingers, rather than speak crap, how bout gettin off your, likely big backsides and go watch a game instead, who knows, maybe then you'll be able to speak FACT, for a change.

Paul O'Brien is a great coach, passionate, and you'll struggle to find anyone more dedicated to what he does.
Geelong's loss = some other lucky club's gain.

- The club has made difficult decisions early in previous seasons to release players who weren't working out and it was best for the team to allow all parties move forward: FACT. Jason Reardon in 2010, Yusuf Qaafow 2 games into the 2012 season. If the issue was limited to 1 player why would they not take the same action again?

FALSE. Reardon left on his own behalf.

Anyone know the price of petrol in London?

Exactly, respectfully, WHO CARES? Last weeks news. FACT

Not true. The price of petrol in London is current news.
The price of it last week would be considered last week's news.

Total fail on that analogy attempt.